(Felis manul), small, long-haired cat (family Felidae) native to deserts and rocky, mountainous regions from Tibet to Siberia. It was named for the naturalist Peter Simon Pallas. The Pallas’s cat is a soft-furred animal about the size of a house cat and is pale silvery gray or light brown in colour. The end of its tail is ringed and tipped with black, and some individuals have vague, dark ...

...of the organ of Corti. The utricle and saccule each contain a macula, an organ consisting of a patch of hair cells covered by a gelatinous membrane containing particles of calcium carbonate, called otoliths. Motions of the head cause the otoliths to pull on the hair cells, stimulating another auditory nerve branch, the vestibular nerve, which signals the position of the head with respect to the...

(species Otocyon megalotis), large-eared fox, belonging to the dog family (Canidae), found in open, arid areas of eastern and southern Africa. It has 48 teeth, 6 more than any other canid. The bat-eared fox is like the red fox in appearance but has unusually large ears. It is yellowish gray with black face and legs and black-tipped ears and tail. It grows to a length of about 80 cm ...

Situated close to the pedal ganglia but with direct connections to the cerebropleural ganglia are a pair of statocysts, which comprise a capsule of ciliated sense cells. In the lumen is either a single statolith or numerous crystalline statoconia. Their points of contact with the surrounding cilia yield information about the animal’s orientation. Additionally, most bivalves with or without eyes......

...novel, Asshu beibī (Ash Baby), appeared in 2004. She followed it with Ōtofikushon (2006; Autofiction), which opens with another nihilistic 20-something female and then scrolls back in time to reveal the past that shaped her skewed perceptions. It was a candidate for the Man Asian......

Japanese comic actor who portrayed the bumbling hero Tora-jiro Kuruma (widely known as Tora-san) in the 48-film series Otoko wa tsurai yo (“It’s Tough Being a Man”). The series ran from 1968 to 1996 and was the longest-running film series in which the same actor portrayed the central character....

medical specialty concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the ear, nose, and throat. Traditionally, treatment of the ear was associated with that of the eye in medical practice. With the development of laryngology in the late 19th century, the connection between the ear and throat became known, and otologists became associated with laryngologists....

...bark of a tree by digging in their sharp-pointed clawlike nails, stabbing the bark with specialized canine and premolar teeth, and then scraping up the gum that flows out. The final genus, Otolemur, contains the largest species, the brown greater galago (O. crassicaudatus), with an average weight of 1.2 kg, though some weigh up to 1.8 kg. It lives in coastal......

...clawlike nails, stabbing the bark with specialized canine and premolar teeth, and then scraping up the gum that flows out. The final genus, Otolemur, contains the largest species, the brown greater galago (O. crassicaudatus), with an average weight of 1.2 kg, though some weigh up to 1.8 kg. It lives in coastal forests and woodlands in southeastern Africa. One or tw...

...of the organ of Corti. The utricle and saccule each contain a macula, an organ consisting of a patch of hair cells covered by a gelatinous membrane containing particles of calcium carbonate, called otoliths. Motions of the head cause the otoliths to pull on the hair cells, stimulating another auditory nerve branch, the vestibular nerve, which signals the position of the head with respect to the...

The two membranous sacs of the vestibule, the utricle and the saccule, are known as the otolith organs. Because they respond to gravitational forces, they are also called gravity receptors. Each sac has on its inner surface a single patch of sensory cells called a macula, which is about 2 millimetres (0.08 inch) in diameter and which monitors the position of the head relative to the vertical......

...to alter the rate of the nerve impulses that they are constantly sending via the vestibular nerve fibres to the brain stem. Covering the entire macula is a delicate acellular structure, the otolithic, or statolithic, membrane. This membrane is sometimes described as gelatinous, although it has a fibrillar pattern. The surface of the membrane is covered by a blanket of rhombohedral......

...or audiologist with important information for determining the nature and cause of the hearing defect. (The audiologist is primarily concerned with measuring the degree of hearing impairment; the otologist diagnoses and treats defects and diseases of the ear by medical or surgical means.)...

a phylum, or stock, of American Indian languages composed mainly of Amuzgoan, Oto-Pamean, Popolocan, Subtiaba-Tlapanecan, Mixtecan, Zapotecan, and Chinantecan. The living languages of these groups are spoken in Mexico, although varieties of Mangue, all of which are extinct, were spoken along the western coast of Central America from El Salvador through ...

city, Sakhalin oblast (region), far eastern Russia. It lies in the southern part of Sakhalin Island on the Aniva Gulf. Founded in 1853 as a fortified post, it was the first Russian military post on the island. Its port opened in 1909. The settlement was ruled by Japan from 1905 to 1945 and was called Ōtomari. In 1946 it became a city and was given its p...

...varied. Israel’s Gabriel system is operated at a computerized control console by one person, who can feed targeting data to the missile before launch and, if desired, during flight. The versatile Otomat system developed by a French-Italian consortium can be used with any radar system and any fire-control system. It is shipped to the purchaser in a case that serves as a launching tube....

Ghanaian barrister who in 1970 became the 15th Asantehene, or king of the Ashanti people, and thereafter ruled over the everyday spiritual and cultural life of the ancient kingdom (b. Nov. 30, 1919, Kumasi, Ghana—d. Feb. 26, 1999, Kumasi)....

Middle American Indian population living in the central plateau region of Mexico. The Otomí peoples speak at least four closely related languages, all called Otomí. A rather large number of modern Otomí no longer speak the Otomí language but continue to consider themselves Otomí. All the Otomí peoples are culturally similar....

The most important of the Otomanguean languages are Otomí, of the Oto-Pamean family, spoken in the Mexican states of Hidalgo, México, Veracruz, Querétaro, and adjacent states; Mixtec dialects, of the Mixtecan family, spoken in the states of Guerrero, Puebla, and Oaxaca; Zapotec dialects (or languages), of the Zapotecan family, spoken in Oaxaca; and Mazahua, of the......

The conflict erupted following the death of the emperor Tenji in ad 672, when Prince Ōtomo was elevated to the throne as the emperor Kōbun through the efforts of the aristocratic clans that had resisted Tenji’s centralization measures. Prince Ōama, brother of the deceased emperor, gathered together his own military forces and defeated Ōtomo at his capital in Ōmi......

...era, seeking profits of foreign trade and the acquisition of military equipment and supplies, protected Christianity. Some daimyo became Christian converts. Three Kyushu Christian lords—Ōtomo Sōrin, Arima Harunobu, and Ōmura Sumitada—even sent an embassy to Rome. Farmers also increasingly became converts, in part because of the influence of the social relief......

medical specialty concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the ear, nose, and throat. Traditionally, treatment of the ear was associated with that of the eye in medical practice. With the development of laryngology in the late 19th century, the connection between the ear and throat became known, and otologists became associated with laryngologists....

...the wide range present. These three cultures are those of the Fur, Muslim Africans in the far western part of the country; the Humr tribe of the Baqqārah Arabs, of west-central Sudan; and the Otoro tribe of the Nuba, in east-central Sudan....

ear disorder characterized by abnormal bone growth in the middle ear, typically affecting the stapes (stirrup), a bone in the region of the oval window. It is at the oval window that the footplate of the stapes comes into contact with the fluids of the inner ear and acts as a piston to conduct sound energy from the eardrum into the fluids of...

ear disorder characterized by abnormal bone growth in the middle ear, typically affecting the stapes (stirrup), a bone in the region of the oval window. It is at the oval window that the footplate of the stapes comes into contact with the fluids of the inner ear and acts as a piston to conduct sound energy from the eardrum into the fluids of...

Ototoxic (harmful to the ear) drugs can cause temporary and sometimes permanent impairment of auditory nerve function. Salicylates such as aspirin in large enough doses may cause ringing in the ears and then a temporary decrease in hearing that ceases when the person stops taking the drug. Quinine can have a similar effect but with a permanent impairment of auditory nerve function in some......

town and archiepiscopal see, Puglia (Apulia) region, southeastern Italy, on the east coast of the Salentine Peninsula (the “heel” of Italy), on the Strait of Otranto (40 miles [64 km] wide), opposite Albania. It is the easternmost town in Italy and is an old port of communication with Greece. Originally the ancient Greek settlement of Hydrus, it was known as Hydruntum by the Rom...

arm of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between the Italian and Balkan peninsulas. The Strait of Otranto at its southeasterly limit links it with the Ionian Sea. It is about 500 miles (800 km) long with an average width of 100 miles, a maximum depth of 4,035 feet (1,324 metres), and an area of 50,590 sq mi (131,050 sq km). The Adriatic has been of great importance in the historical development of......

...of the Allies in World War II. With the help of friends, he earned his way by lecturing, editing, and writing. A 1952 collection of essays, Otras inquisiciones (1937–1952) (Other Inquisitions, 1937–1952), revealed him at his analytic best. When Perón was deposed in 1955, Borges became director of the national library, an honorific position, and also......

After Fyodor I (reigned 1584–98), the last tsar of the Rurik dynasty, died and his brother-in-law Boris Godunov succeeded him, the first False Dmitry appeared and challenged Godunov’s right to the throne. The first pretender is considered by many historians to have been Grigory (Yury) Bogdanovich Otrepyev, a member of the gentry who had frequented the house of the Romanovs before becoming......

Gerbert’s fame aroused the jealousy of Otric, master of the cathedral school at Magdeburg in Saxony (presently in Germany), who denounced Gerbert to Emperor Otto II. In December 980 Otto provoked a debate in Ravenna between Gerbert and Otric on the subject of classifying knowledge. The vehement argument that resulted was terminated only when the Emperor intervened....

...education at Northeastern Illinois University (B.A., 1975), where she became involved in Hispanic American artistic, activist, and intellectual circles. Castillo’s first collection of poems, Otro Canto (1977), was published as a chapbook. In 1979, shortly after receiving an M.A. in social sciences from the University of Chicago, she published a second chapbook, The......

After the fall of Perón in 1955, Sábato published El otro rostro del peronismo (1956; “The Other Face of Peronism”), which is an attempt to study the historical and political causes of the violence and unrest of Perón’s rule. The essay El caso Sábato (1956; “The Sábato Case”) is a plea......

Tolstoy’s works during the late 1850s and early 1860s experimented with new forms for expressing his moral and philosophical concerns. To Childhood he soon added Otrochestvo (1854; Boyhood) and Yunost (1857; Youth). A number of stories centre on a single semiautobiographical character, Dmitry Nekhlyudov, who later reappeared as the hero of Tolstoy’s novel......

county, central New York state, U.S., comprising a rugged upland region bordered by the Unadilla River to the west and the Susquehanna River to the southwest. Originating in Otsego Lake in the northern part of the county, the Susquehanna is one of the longest rivers of the Eastern Seaboard. Other bodies of water include Canadarago Lake and W...

capital, Shiga ken (prefecture), southern Honshu, Japan, on the shore of Lake Biwa. A castle town established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 16th century, it is situated at the junction of ancient highways, including the Tōkaidō (Eastern Sea Highway). Ōtsu has long been a gateway to Kyōto and a centre of transportatio...

Italian stanza form composed of eight 11-syllable lines, rhyming abababcc. It originated in the late 13th and early 14th centuries and was developed by Tuscan poets for religious verse and drama and in troubadour songs. The form appeared in Spain and Portugal in the 16th century. It was used in 1600 in England (where the lines were shortened to 10 syllables) by Edward Fairfax in his transl...

...intrusion in Italian public life reached another high point in the 1950s when Pius’s failing health left the power of the Vatican increasingly in the hands of conservative cardinals, including Alfredo Ottaviani, head of the Holy Office. In 1952 Luigi Gedda, president of Catholic Action, fearing that the Christian Democrats might lose the municipal elections in Rome, proposed a Christian......

antipope from 1159 to 1164 and the second antipope designated as Victor IV. The first of four antipopes established against Pope Alexander III by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. (In adopting his papal name, he ignored the antipope Victor of 1138.)...

city, seat (1831) of La Salle county, north-central Illinois, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Fox and Illinois rivers, about 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Chicago. The site was inhabited by Illinois Indians when it was visited by French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet in 1673. ...

Algonquian-speaking North American Indians whose original territory focused on the Ottawa River, the French River, and Georgian Bay, in present northern Michigan, U.S., and southeastern Ontario and southwestern Quebec, Canada. According to tradition, the Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi were formerly one tribe, having migrated from the northwe...

city, capital of Canada, located in southeastern Ontario. In the eastern extreme of the province, Ottawa is situated on the south bank of the Ottawa River across from Gatineau, Quebec, at the confluence of the Ottawa (Outaouais), Gatineau, and Rideau rivers. The Ottawa River (some 790 ...

city, seat (1864) of Franklin county, eastern Kansas, U.S. It lies on the Marais des Cygnes River. Ottawa was founded in 1864 near the Ottawa Indian Baptist Mission, which had been established in 1837 on lands given (1832) to the Ottawa Indians in exchange for their Ohio lands. During the Border War the area served as a centre of abolitionist activity; proslav...

...resulted in the Oslo Accords (1993) and as a liaison in talks between the Guatemalan government and guerrillas that led to a peace agreement (1997). Egeland represented Norway in negotiating the Ottawa Treaty (1997) to ban land mines. From 1999 to 2001 he was a special adviser on Colombia to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who on June 6, 2003, appointed him undersecretary-general for......

...In the CFL West Division are the British Columbia Lions, Calgary Stampeders, Edmonton Eskimos, Saskatchewan Roughriders, and Winnipeg Blue Bombers. In the East Division are the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Ottawa Redblacks, Montreal Alouettes, and Toronto Argonauts....

river in east-central Canada, the chief tributary of the St. Lawrence River. It rises in the Laurentian Plateau of western Quebec and flows swiftly westward to Lake Timiskaming and then southeastward, forming for most of its course the Quebec–Ontario provincial border before it joins the St. Lawrence west of Montreal. Through its total course of 790 mi (1,271 km), the river for...

...resulted in the Oslo Accords (1993) and as a liaison in talks between the Guatemalan government and guerrillas that led to a peace agreement (1997). Egeland represented Norway in negotiating the Ottawa Treaty (1997) to ban land mines. From 1999 to 2001 he was a special adviser on Colombia to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who on June 6, 2003, appointed him undersecretary-general for......

Northeast of the Frontenac Axis, the lowlands embrace the Ottawa valley and the St. Lawrence valley to a point some 70 miles (110 km) downstream from Quebec city. During the last glacial period, this area was inundated by ocean water, known as the Champlain Sea, which produced a very flat plain. The level plain is broken by the seven Monteregian Hills near Montreal. The westernmost of these is......

March 25, 1922New York, N.Y.July 9, 2014Morristown, N.J.American businesswoman who was credited with revolutionizing the way that fashion modeling was run as a business and with establishing a highly influential—and contentious—standard of beauty in the fashion industry as the founder of Fo...

...and in 1951–52 another major novel was published, Devyaty val (The Ninth Wave). Shortly after Joseph Stalin’s death Ehrenburg produced the novel Ottepel (1954; The Thaw), which provoked intense controversy in the Soviet press, and the title of which has become descriptive of that period in Soviet literature. It dealt with Soviet life in a more realistic......

any of 13 species of semiaquatic mammals, noted for their playful behaviour, that belong to the weasel family. The lithe and slender body has short legs, a strong neck, and a long flattened tail that helps propel the animal gracefully through water. Swimming ability is further enhanced in most species by four webbed feet. Two species are marine, with the others living predominan...

...palm civets, such as Paradoxurus (also known as toddy cat because of its fondness for palm juice, or “toddy”) and Nandinia, civets are mainly terrestrial. The Sunda otter civet (Cynogale bennetti), the African civet (Civettictis civetta), and the rare Congo water civet (Genetta piscivora) are semiaquatic. Civets feed on small animals and on......

river originating at Mount Tabor, southern Vermont, U.S., that flows about 100 miles (160 km) north and west to Lake Champlain, near Ferrisburg. It is the longest river in the state. In its upper course, Otter Creek flows between the Taconic Range and the Green......

any of three species of amphibious and carnivorous tropical African insectivores that are not “true” shrews (family Soricidae). All are nocturnal and den in cavities and burrows in stream banks; tunnel entrances are underwater. Otter shrews have small eyes and ears and a fleshy broad, flat muzzle that ends in a leathery pad. The muzzle is covered abundantly wi...

The otter trawl is the most widely used bottom-fishing gear. As it is dragged forward, a pair of flat plates called otter boards—one on each side of the trawl net and weighing several tons—spreads horizontally to keep the mouth of the trawl open; at the same time, a long rope with steel weights keeps the mouth open along its bottom edge. This heavy structure plows the ocean floor as......

Canadian army officer. He joined the army and helped suppress the Riel (North West) Rebellion (1885). He became the first commanding officer of the Royal Canadian regiment of infantry (1893) and led a Canadian force in the South African War (1899–1902). He was appointed chief of the general staff (1908) and later inspector general of the Canadian militia (1910–12), and he directed internment opera...

Canadian army officer. He joined the army and helped suppress the Riel (North West) Rebellion (1885). He became the first commanding officer of the Royal Canadian regiment of infantry (1893) and led a Canadian force in the South African War (1899–1902). He was appointed chief of the general staff (1908) and later inspector general of the Canadian militia (1910–12), and he directed internment opera...

(Puma yagouaroundi), small, unspotted New World cat (family Felidae), also known as the otter-cat because of its otterlike appearance and swimming ability. The jaguarundi is native to forested and brushy regions, especially those near water, from South America to the southwestern United States; it is, however, very rare north of Mexico....

dog breed first described in the 14th century. Developed in England to hunt otters on both land and water, it resembles a rough-coated bloodhound and has a large head, pendulous ears, and a dense, shaggy, water-resistant coat. Its webbed feet make it an excellent swimmer. It stands 24 to 27 inches (61 to 69 cm), weighs 80 to 115 pounds (36 to 52 kg), and is us...

river on the island of New Guinea, Papua New Guinea, southwestern Pacific Ocean. One of the longest rivers in the country, it rises in the east on the Kratke Range and flows northwest through the great Central Depression, where it receives numerous streams draining the Bismarck (south) and Finisterre and Adelbert (north) ranges. For the last 60 miles (100 km) of its approximatel...

German tin-glazed earthenware made in Bavaria in the 18th and 19th centuries. The factory was first established at Öttingen in 1735 and two years later was moved to Schrattenhofen. The ware is characteristic of much produced in Bavaria—e.g., cylindrical beer tankards—and the decoration is likewise Bavarian in the Rococo style. The factory also produced less ornate ware an...

After Frederick’s death the Habsburgs were for some time ruled out as possible candidates for the German throne; but, under the brothers Albert II and Otto, Habsburg Austria received its first important accession of territory. In 1335 Kärnten and Carniola were acquired after the death of Henry of Gorizia, while, with the help of Luxembourg troops, Henry’s daughter Margaret Maultasch......

first king of the modern Greek state (1832–62), who governed his country autocratically until he was forced to become a constitutional monarch in 1843. Attempting to increase Greek territory at the expense of Turkey, he failed and was overthrown....

Of the different techniques for recovering the power from the combustion process, the most important so far has been the four-stroke cycle, a conception first developed in the late 19th century. The four-stroke cycle is illustrated in the figure. With the inlet valve open, the piston first descends on the intake stroke. An ignitable mixture of gasoline vapour and air is......

duke of Saxony (as Otto II, 936–961), German king (from 936), and Holy Roman emperor (962–973) who consolidated the German Reich by his suppression of rebellious vassals and his decisive victory over the Hungarians. His use of the church as a stabilizing influence created a secure empire and stimulated a cultural renaissance....

One of Kinkel’s poetic epics, Otto der Schütz (1846; “Otto the Marksman”), which has been considered a forerunner of Joseph Victor von Scheffel’s Der Trompeter von Säckingen, was published in more than 70 editions and was mainly responsible for Kinkel’s influence on his contemporaries. His poetry is characterized by a sentimentality that is often found in......

German architect and design engineer and winner of the 2015 Pritzker Prize, who is known for his tensile architectural designs—lightweight tentlike structures such as the central sports stadium of the Munich 1972 Olympic Games....

German architect and design engineer and winner of the 2015 Pritzker Prize, who is known for his tensile architectural designs—lightweight tentlike structures such as the central sports stadium of the Munich 1972 Olympic Games....

duke of Saxony (as Otto II, 936–961), German king (from 936), and Holy Roman emperor (962–973) who consolidated the German Reich by his suppression of rebellious vassals and his decisive victory over the Hungarians. His use of the church as a stabilizing influence created a secure empire and stimulated a cultural renaissance....

German king and Holy Roman emperor who planned to recreate the glory and power of the ancient Roman Empire in a universal Christian state governed from Rome, in which the pope would be subordinate to the emperor in religious as well as in secular affairs....

With an offense starring quarterback Daryle Lamonica and centre Jim Otto, the Raiders won the AFL championship in December 1967, a victory that sent the team to its first Super Bowl the following January (a loss to the Green Bay Packers). John Madden was hired as head coach in 1969, and under his guidance the Raiders became an elite team, posting consecutive winning seasons during Madden’s......

fragrant, colourless or pale-yellow liquid essential oil distilled from fresh petals of Rosa damascena and R. gallica and other species of the rose family Rosaceae. Rose oils are a valuable ingredient of fine perfumes and liqueurs. They are also used for flavouring lozenges and scenting ointments and toilet preparations....

German author and cofounder of the Selbsthilfebund der Körperbehinderten (Self-Help Alliance of the Physically Handicapped, or Otto Perl Alliance; 1919–31), the first emancipatory self-help organization representing the interests of the physically disabled in Germany....